July 20An older woman came into view in the open doorway, bending to help Rebecca stand, edging around the puddle of sick, her dark eyes lifted and landed on my patient before her skin paled. I guess it was a gruesome sight, I mean it turned my stomach initially but all the same, there were an awful lot of people struggling with this. Who was this boy?I shook off the thoughts. As my hands moved, cleaning an incision in the boy’s bowel before placing a stitch to hold the edges together then moving on to the next hole.“Talk to me Jay, what’s wrong with him.” I asked my guard, who was cutting the fabric off the other man’s body as my eyes kept sweeping up to Rebecca in the doorway.“Beck?” Greyson’s voice out in the hall caught her attention and I glanced down, cleaning out another cut, adding a stitch then continuing.“Kora, I need you to start at this end.” I instructed, handing her the other end of the bowels. “He’s losing a lot of blood, we need to get him closed up as soon as we
July 20“You okay?” Able’s words were gentle, his hand soothing as he ran circles on my back while I, embarrassingly, heaved into the shrubbery. Unfortunately, not even the tingles were enough to overcome the dread I felt in the pit of my stomach.His brother.Oh my god, what if he doesn’t make it. Would they blame me. His Mum who was sweet and kind, his father with his soothing charm, the sister I hadn’t met yet and the pack who idolised the Alphas family, and finally my mate, my salvation, my future. Would they forgive me?“He’ll be okay. Doc said you did a great job.” Able tried soothing me but it was in vain. Because all I could think of were the what if’s.I stood on shaky legs, wiping my mouth on the sleeve of the scrubs I still wore and let Able pull me into him, his arms wrapping around my shoulders and my head reasting against the bare skin of his muscled chest.“You did amazingly Amara. Mum spent a full ten minutes bragging about how you jumped into helping doc. About how m
July 20The sun was setting by the time Able and I left the medical centre. Over the last few hours, Doc Barrett and I, with the assistance of Kora and Addison, had managed to get the case load under control, with six patients who would be staying in for monitoring, including Brody and only a handful left to be seen.Able had caught up with everything that was going on and formulated a plan with the assistance of his father and Beta. We received confirmation from a nearby pack that further reinforcements were being sent, along with one of their pack doctors and supplies.For now it looked like the fighting had come to a standstill, although shifters of all ages patrolled along the edge of the pack lands, waiting for an opening to invade.The general consensus right now was that they wanted something, and Able expected that Alpha Westley would be in contact with demands soon enough, in the meantime, the pack was using the down time to rest and recover and plan out additional defences.
July 8thThe sun was shining, the birds chirping, the leaves swaying slightly in the breeze. The smell of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers brought a small smile to my lips and filled me with a sense of peace. It was barely eight in the morning but already the sun had warmed the air.My eyes landed on a small bumble bee, flitting in and out of the perfect blooms and not for the first time I wondered what his life is like. Is it a simple life, carefree, or does he worry, do predators haunt his every waking moment, is he in a hurry, panicked, is that why his wings flutter so fast. It’s easy to lose myself in such thoughts, when my own reality is hidden behind the door to my back.The groundskeeper Kyle, had already done his rounds early this morning, avoiding the summer heat by starting at the crack of dawn, not that I could really blame him. It was the hottest summer we had seen in twenty years, or so Mrs H kept complaining.I sat down on the chipped and discoloured stone step, st
July 12My birthday was fast approaching, and with each day that passed it felt like I was moving one step closer to the guillotine of my fate. Each morning there was a sick feeling in my stomach, a nausea that grew stronger as the reality of my fate started to take hold, because while our lives here were not easy, not simple, not happy or free they were not the worst they could be either.Today I had been assigned to the library, a long and tedious but easy job. I climbed the ladder to the upper shelves and wiped the cloth along the shiny wood removing the thin layer of dust. Keira and I were on night duty tonight, yet another job I hated, although we all hated this one, so once I was finished in here, I would grab a quick lunch and retire to the slaves quarters to grab some sleep so that I would be up all night ready to answer the call of the Alpha and his family in case they needed anything.If we were ever to be on the receiving end of the Alphas anger it would be in the night hou
July 13Grace, Tara and I stood in the entry hall for what felt like a lifetime as our Alpha greeted his visitors, conversing in low tones that echoed around the room in a way that it was impossible to make out their words.Somehow, I had managed to regain my sanity, and now stood, as the other girls did, with my back straight and my head down, waiting for our orders, but my mind wouldn’t stop turning.Mate. What did this mean?Considering I hadn’t been called forward I assumed that the Alpha Williams hadn’t said anything. Did that mean he didn’t want me? Would he simply reject me and move on? Or would he take me with him. To a new pack, a pack that could be a whole hell of a lot worse than this one.I was starting to panic, there were too many unknowns, and the man scared the shit out of me. He had seemed angry enough to see me in the first place, but once I realised he was my mate I was so shocked that I couldn’t keep the horror off my face, his anger had transformed into rage at th
July 13I made my way quietly down to the kitchens, the whole time hoping that Grace and Tara were okay, only to walk in and find the two of them sat at the table.“Amara.” Grace jumped up to greet me, her face one of concern, a look that was going to stick if she didn’t stop.“Are you both okay?” I asked the two girls, neither looked like they had been crying, or that they were injured.“Yes, they didn’t touch us, we just showed them to their rooms, and they dismissed us.” Tara stated from her still seated position as she looked me over. “How badly are you hurt?” She asked me and I frowned for a moment before realising that they had assumed the worst, I had been in that room with him for over an hour.I thought about what actually had happened, but my wolf was begging me not to say anything, not to tell them the truth. I didn’t understand why but she had never led me wrong before.“I’m okay, no extra injuries. I’m just tired. I’m going to go back to bed.” I answered as I did just tha
July 13“Take off your dress.” He demanded, I felt my whole body shake with the fear and nerves that raced through me and suddenly I wasn’t so sure that I could survive this.I tugged at the hem of my dress lifting the material, avoiding his eyes the entire time as I tried to shimmy my injured body out of the stiff fabric. I hissed out a cry of pain as the fabric scraped across the bandages on my ribs. And gritted my teeth until it cleared my head, leaving me in nothing but the tube like bra and utilitarian panties that were provided for us. I held the dress in front of me in clenched fists, like that would protect me from him.“Fuck.” He muttered and my eyes shot up to meet his, only his were focused on the bandages wrapped around me.“Take that off, lets have a look.” He stated and I felt myself shudder. I dropped my dress on the ground, unable to hold onto it and unwrap my ribs at the same time and gasped a little as I noticed the blood that had soaked through the bandages during t
July 20The sun was setting by the time Able and I left the medical centre. Over the last few hours, Doc Barrett and I, with the assistance of Kora and Addison, had managed to get the case load under control, with six patients who would be staying in for monitoring, including Brody and only a handful left to be seen.Able had caught up with everything that was going on and formulated a plan with the assistance of his father and Beta. We received confirmation from a nearby pack that further reinforcements were being sent, along with one of their pack doctors and supplies.For now it looked like the fighting had come to a standstill, although shifters of all ages patrolled along the edge of the pack lands, waiting for an opening to invade.The general consensus right now was that they wanted something, and Able expected that Alpha Westley would be in contact with demands soon enough, in the meantime, the pack was using the down time to rest and recover and plan out additional defences.
July 20“You okay?” Able’s words were gentle, his hand soothing as he ran circles on my back while I, embarrassingly, heaved into the shrubbery. Unfortunately, not even the tingles were enough to overcome the dread I felt in the pit of my stomach.His brother.Oh my god, what if he doesn’t make it. Would they blame me. His Mum who was sweet and kind, his father with his soothing charm, the sister I hadn’t met yet and the pack who idolised the Alphas family, and finally my mate, my salvation, my future. Would they forgive me?“He’ll be okay. Doc said you did a great job.” Able tried soothing me but it was in vain. Because all I could think of were the what if’s.I stood on shaky legs, wiping my mouth on the sleeve of the scrubs I still wore and let Able pull me into him, his arms wrapping around my shoulders and my head reasting against the bare skin of his muscled chest.“You did amazingly Amara. Mum spent a full ten minutes bragging about how you jumped into helping doc. About how m
July 20An older woman came into view in the open doorway, bending to help Rebecca stand, edging around the puddle of sick, her dark eyes lifted and landed on my patient before her skin paled. I guess it was a gruesome sight, I mean it turned my stomach initially but all the same, there were an awful lot of people struggling with this. Who was this boy?I shook off the thoughts. As my hands moved, cleaning an incision in the boy’s bowel before placing a stitch to hold the edges together then moving on to the next hole.“Talk to me Jay, what’s wrong with him.” I asked my guard, who was cutting the fabric off the other man’s body as my eyes kept sweeping up to Rebecca in the doorway.“Beck?” Greyson’s voice out in the hall caught her attention and I glanced down, cleaning out another cut, adding a stitch then continuing.“Kora, I need you to start at this end.” I instructed, handing her the other end of the bowels. “He’s losing a lot of blood, we need to get him closed up as soon as we
July 18“I can’t.” I uttered, the words sticking, and I cleared my throat. “I can’t make these decisions Greyson. I don’t know anything about running a pack, hell I don’t know anything about this pack. I don’t even know where the borders are. You need to do it.” My voice shook with fear. What if he made me do it? could I actually live with myself if I got someone killed in my ignorance.“If you’re sure you are okay with that.” He uttered glancing around tentatively. “I won’t go over your head, you’re my superior.” He stated and I shook my head with a whole new level of panic.“No, please.” I muttered, my head a complete mess. Able was still unconscious, I had literally only seen the pack house and one road of Silver lake land, and I was being asked to make decisions that were so far outside my ability, outside my comfort zone. I had never even been allowed to pick the dinner menu before today. Every move I made was decided for me, and while I had always dreamed of freedom, I had never
July 18The medical centre was a large redbrick building set somewhere in the centre of the town. We drove past houses and shops and what looked like offices, all while maintaining a speed that meant it was impossible to take in my surroundings, not that my wolf or I were in a state to do so.My hands were shaking by the time the SUV pulled to a stop with a screech. My mate was injured. And it didn’t matter that Able and I barely knew each other, he was mine, ours, and the instinct of my wolf was to protect and avenge.The anger that coursed through me was like nothing I had felt before, it was an instinctual feeling that rose in me, one that my wolf had to explain was partly caused by the mate bond.By the force of the Goddess we were bound to each other in a way that would change us. Over time, I would become more like Able and Able would become more like me, our temperaments would even each other’s out. That was the point of the bond. Fated mates were the perfect pair, the perfect
July 18“Luna, we need to get you somewhere safe.” Tara stated, her voice full of panic as she glanced around the courtyard like we ere about to be attacked.Stupidly, it was only then that it occurred to me that the alarm was to signal the pack as under attack. No wonder her head was spinning.Tara’s panic was catching, and I felt my heart rate increasing as reality set in. Silver lake as actually under attack, and my old Alpha, my old pack was at the heart of it.“There’s a safe room in the Alpha quarters, we’ll stay there.” She continued before speeding across the stone pavement and up the steps into the building that would be my home.I followed along on Tara’s heels, my head a mess of so many thoughts that I didn’t take in a single thing about my new home.The older woman led the way up a set of stairs, along a corridor and into a room that resembled a small sitting room, with a wall of monitors and a computer, a sofa and tv and a mini kitchenette. An open door at the far end of
July 18Anders led the way inside the pack house, through the double front doors, the large entry hall with open plan staircase and upper balcony, and into the only door on the right hand wall, he didn’t pause to point things out or even let me look around, and with the single minded focus he was exhibiting, I was worried that if I stopped for even a second I would end up losing him, not something I wanted to have as my first memory of this house.I stepped through the wide doorway into a room bigger than any I had ever seen before, with huge picture windows and heavy drapes, cream walls, hard wood flooring and dark wood trim.It was a little surreal as I glanced around the room, as though everything was supersized. The stone fireplace almost directly in front of me was almost as tall as me, the armchairs placed around it could likely seat two people each. The largest sectional imaginable sat on a huge cream rug to my right, the corner sofa could easily seat twenty people and was posi
July 18The rest of the drive to Silver lake was long, with only a couple of short stops for food and to change drivers we spent the hours sleeping, taking in the scenery and in whispered conversations.Able spent the entire journey by my side, much to my confusion but Anders and Greyson said they didn’t mind driving, and they were happy to give us some quiet time together, the assumption being that it would be all hands-on deck and a new kind of mayhem once we arrived.I learnt a lot about my mate during the hours we spent together, some things he spoke about, some I observed, but the thing that really stuck with me was the relationship he had with the other two guys.I had witnessed more than one conversation between Alpha Westley and his Beta, and it was always one sided and unpleasant to hear. The Alpha cared about nothing but power and wealth and his own notoriety, and it showed. He was rude, demanding and condescending to everyone around him, even his second in command.Able on
July 17“We have to go. Now!” The words still echoed through my head, and I replayed the conversation in my head like a bad movie.“What’s going on?”“Alpha Westley is working with other packs, there’s an attack planned on Silver lake.”“When?” The single word from Able’s lips was strained and I worried for a moment that his wolf was about to take over once again.“He was on the phone with Alpha Greening, from Black rock. It sounded like they were setting out tonight. Black rock is only half a days travel from home.”“Who else is involved?”“Don’t know, he didn’t say specifically, just said that ‘the others’ would join them as soon as possible. He also has a contingent from Red mist already on route.”“Shit!”What followed were lots of hurried directions, phone calls and plans, and the entire time I sat in a trance, not really comprehending what was happening. I mean how could I. My life had gone from being simple, where on any given day I followed directions and didn’t need to worry